News, notes, and anecdotes on the Fort Wayne TinCaps

TinCaps 2013 News and Notes, Podcast #7

Welcome back to “It’s All Relative” for the 2013 calendar year, and soon, the 2013 baseball season. We’ve now got fewer than three months to go until Opening Day 2013. It may not feel like we’re close to baseball being played (29 degrees today), but it’ll all be here before we know it. Let’s get caught up on the latest TinCaps news:

“The publication reviewed 1,225 sports venues in compiling its “Top 101 Stadium Experiences for 2012″. Parkview Field ranked as the #14 experience in all sporting venues. Parkview Field was also rated as the top experience in Minor League Baseball in 2011, when the magazine reviewed 754 stadiums.”

“Hooton, a native of Greenville, Texas, spent his Major League career with the Chicago Cubs (1971-75), Los Angeles Dodgers (1975-84) and Texas Rangers (1985). On April 16, 1972, in his fourth Major League start, Hooton threw a no-hitter for the Cubs against the Philadelphia Phillies. He finished his Major League career with a 151-136 (.526) record with 1,491 strikeouts over 2,652 innings. Over 11 career postseason games, Hooton was 6-3 with a 3.17 ERA, including the 1981 postseason, in which Hooton was 5-1 with a 0.82 ERA in five starts for the World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers. Hooton was named both an All-Star and MVP of the National League Championship series that season.”

The Fort Wayne TinCaps Speakers Bureau is a free, community service providing guest or keynote speakers to civic organizations, service clubs and other groups that host regular events throughout Northeast Indiana and Northwest Ohio. TinCaps play-by-play broadcaster Mike Couzens will deliver an interesting and engaging presentation to the members of your organization. The TinCaps Speakers Bureau is open to any group or organization and offers multiple presentation topics, including:

• The team’s transition from the Wizards to the TinCaps• The 150-year history of baseball in Fort Wayne• The Business of Minor League Baseball

It’s now time for another edition of Chatting Practice: A Payday Podcast featuring TinCaps VP of Marketing Michael Limmer, and yours truly. Here’s the rundown:

1:30 – Week in Review

I begin with the story of my trip to Chicago where I served as the statistician for an NCAA women’s basketball broadcast, and then ate Sunday at a bougie health club. Completely out of my league, but they did make a mean smoothie.

7:00 – Michael’s Week in Review

Michael and the Limmer family are looking into buying a minivan:

Not Pictured: Anyone in the Limmer family.

Michael says, “For some people, minivan is a four-letter word.”

11:10 – Michael tells the story of his first car, a 1989 Toyota Corolla. For reference, I was born in 1989. He later went on to sell the car for $125 in 2006. The car died three months later.

12:50 – We discover that Michael once drove a 1989 maroon Cadillac Coupe de Ville. My day could only go downhill after discovering this fascinating news:

13:40 – Michael ponders if the 25-year-old version of himself would’ve ever imagined he would enjoy shopping for a minivan.

14:50 – What’s the line between practical and lazy when it comes to clothing? (Hint: Dri-Fit polos don’t get wrinkled as easily as cotton shirts do. We’re looking out for you.)

16:20 – We discuss different styles of car-buying negotiation. I’ve decided I’m going to be a ‘take it or leave it’ client, while Michael wants a fair deal for both the dealer and himself. It is settled that one shouldn’t wear a suit when going to buy a car.

Car-buying tips brought to you by….Nelly?

Michael is looking to get a Honda Odyssey. So as he continues his search, we’re calling it “The Odyssey Odyssey”.

20:00 – Michael’s week in review brings us a movie review:

“Blame the screenwriter”

He is not a big fan of this movie starring Amy Adams, Clint Eastwood and Justin Timberlake.

23:30 – My Pop Culture Item of the Week (TM) – I pondered aloud (and on Facebook) – At what age are people getting rid of their home phone?

I thought back to when I got my first cellphone, which I think was in 2003, and there was a young couple in the store that had come in to cancel their land-line phone. At the time, it was unfathomable to me that anyone could get by without a home phone. Now, we’re getting closer and closer to those lines being obsolete.

My very informal Facebook survey found people as young as 24 with a home phone, but most people thought the dividing line was somewhere between 30-35 years old. At some point, of course, the home phone (at least a land-line) will become obsolete. Michael later brought up a good point about how the work land-line could become obsolete if phone providers could allow you to access two different numbers on one phone. It’d probably create a nightmare on the billing side of things, but that’s for the phone company to sort out.

29:30 – We encounter the awkward difficulty of always being available, but not wanting to hang out with certain people–how do you work around that? Whose calls do you screen and whose do you answer? These are the important topics of the day, people.

35:40 – The Odd Food Challenge (TM) returns in 2013…with a vengeance! We ended 2012 with a Christmas Cookie Truce, and agreed we would both try to gross one another out come this new year. I began by getting Hot Cauliflower for Michael, who does not like to eat spicy foods.

Servings per container: “Usually 9″

I generally don’t enjoy foods that are highlighter yellow. That’s a dangerous shade.

The “hot” part of the cauliflower sent Michael into a coughing fit, but he survived.

What do you serve hot cauliflower with? Does it go in a bowl by itself? Someone must know…but it’s not us.

42:30 – I enjoyed laughing at Michael’s difficulty with the hot cauliflower, but the bell would toll for me, too. I was forced to confront SPAM:

Mike is not amused.

I’d never eaten this “meat” product before, and I don’t ever intend to again. It smelled like sardines and tasted like bad tuna fish. I made it through one bite, which I was lucky to finish. I think this was Michael’s greatest feat to date in the Odd Food Challenge.

Michael summed up our challenge in a great way: “Palatable enough to actually try a bite, bad enough to say you’d never do it again.” In that regard, we were all winners this week.

Thanks for listening. We’ll be back with a new podcast at the end of the month. Until then you can reach me on Twitter @MikeCouzens or via email at Couzens@Tincaps.com.

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